Reform: Emancipation in America

A picture portraying slaves and the idea of emancipation

"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that." - President Abraham Lincoln, in a letter to Horace Greeley

President Abraham Lincoln was willing to do anything to preserve the Union after the Civil War

Ultimately decided that the best way to do so would be to support abolitionism and enforce emancipation

Led to the creation of two important laws: the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment

Acted as the reformation for the conflict between abolitionists of the Union and slave owners of the Confederacy by abolishing slavery in the South, and later in the North, during and after the Civil War, respectively